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Buy a Field at Anathoth

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2: 3-5—“Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone, revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.” My dad’s life is written on my heart. It gives me pleasure still to read his Bible.

But, parents, write in your Bible! Even if you use squiggly lines. Your kids will thank you someday! But more important, write your lives on their hearts. That someday, perhaps one cold night, as they wait to go asleep, they will read your Bible, see your marks, and, more importantly, remember that day, long ago, when you wrote your life on their lives.

Mark Jeremiah 32.

32:1 In the tenth year that Zedekiah was ruling over Judah the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. That was the same as the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 32:2 Now at that time, 2 the armies of the king of Babylon were besieging Jerusalem. 3 The prophet Jeremiah was confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse 4 attached to the royal palace of Judah. 32:3 For King Zedekiah 5 had confined Jeremiah there after he had reproved him for prophesying as he did. He had asked Jeremiah, “Why do you keep prophesying these things? Why do you keep saying that the Lord says, ‘I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon? I will let him capture it. 6 32:4 King Zedekiah of Judah will not escape from the Babylonians. 7 He will certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon. He must answer personally to the king of Babylon and confront him face to face. 8 32:5 Zedekiah will be carried off to Babylon and will remain there until I have fully dealt with him. 9 I, the Lord, affirm it! 10 Even if you 11 continue to fight against the Babylonians, 12 you cannot win.’”

32:6 So now, Jeremiah said, “The Lord told me, 13 32:7 ‘Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you soon. He will say to you, “Buy my field at Anathoth because you are entitled 14 as my closest relative to buy it.”’ 15 32:8 Now it happened just as the Lord had said! My cousin Hanamel 16 came to me in the courtyard of the guardhouse. He said to me, ‘Buy my field which is at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. Buy it for yourself since you are entitled as my closest relative to take possession of it for yourself.’ When this happened, I recognized that the Lord had indeed spoken to me. 32:9 So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out seven ounces of silver and gave it to him to pay for it. 17 32:10 I signed the deed of purchase, 18 sealed it, and had some men serve as witnesses to the purchase. 19 I weighed out the silver for him on a scale. 32:11 There were two copies of the deed of purchase. One was sealed and contained the order of transfer and the conditions of purchase. 20 The other was left unsealed. 32:12 I took both copies of the deed of purchase 21 and gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. I gave them to him in the presence 22 of my cousin 23 Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase, and all the Judeans who were housed in the courtyard of the guardhouse. 32:13 In the presence of all these people I instructed Baruch, 32:14 ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all 24 says, “Take these documents, both the sealed copy of the deed of purchase and the unsealed copy. Put them in a clay jar so that they may be preserved for a long time to come.”’ 25 32:15 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all 26 says, “Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”’

Jeremiah, knowing full well that he was going to die in captivity, without ever enjoying his homeland again, bought property in that homeland. His investment was not for himself; it was for his children, his grandchildren, his nation. Can you do that? Can you live your life knowing that you might never enjoy your field at Anathoth? Can you invest in the lives of things and people knowing you may never live to see the fruit grow on the bushes in the fields that you bought but will not enjoy?